Nightmares
by BikerChick101
Summary: Haleb, post 7x01/7x02, Spaleb was never a thing : Hanna has nightmares after her second dollhouse experience and Caleb is there to help


**All you need to know for this little one shot is that it is set after 7x02 and Spaleb were never a romantic couple**

* * *

Caleb Rivers jerked awake as soon as he heard Hanna say 'No' even if it was only a whisper, he was so attuned to her nightmares at this point that he could feel her distress in his deepest sleep.

He turned over to look at her and found her clutching her pillow, there were beads of sweat forming on her forehead and her brows were furrowed but the rest of her body was still. He hated how helpless he was when she was having a nightmare, how he had to coax her out of it without touching her.

"Shh, Hanna, you're ok, you're safe, you're fine," he whispered, hoping to break through to her. "You're home." He continued to say resisting the urge to just hold her in his arms and thinking about the first time she had a nightmare and he touched her.

* * *

" _Caleb," Hanna asked quietly as he closed the blinds in the room. "Can you stay with me, please?"_

 _Caleb took her hands in his and rubbed his thumbs over them when he walked over and nodded. She hated how much she needed Caleb and how much her needing him was going to hurt him because he was not her fiancé but then he looked at her with the most caring eyes and promised to stay with her while she slept, she couldn't help but not give a damn about how selfish she was._

" _Hey, are you ok?" Caleb asked, noticing her pained expression. He had refrained from asking her how she was doing when Mary Drake had dropped her off because the girls had taken over but he had to ask now, when they were alone and she could drop the brave face she had on._

 _She didn't answer immediately, just shook her head and tried to hold back the tears."Yeah, of course I am."_

" _Come on, you need to sleep," he said pulling back the covers of the bed and letting her get in when he realized he wasn't going to get any emotional response from her, he was going to sit on the bed and watch over her as she slept but she just cocked an eyebrow at him and he laughed and shed his clothes so he could get in next to her, keeping the distance between them and knowing that she would close it if she wanted more comfort than he was supposed to be offering. "You're demanding," he mumbled as she closed her eyes and held onto her pillow, smiling. He watched her until her breathing evened out and she fell asleep, he watched over her as he heard the rest of their friends say their goodnights and finally he too fell asleep._

 _Caleb was awoken by Hanna moving sharply next to him, it took him a minute to realize where he was and what was happening. He reached for Hanna, hoping that his touch would soothe her but she lashed out even more, hitting him across the face and opening her eyes. Her movements were panicked as she got of the bed and bolted from the room._

 _Caleb ran after her, catching up to her in the kitchen where she was holding up a knife and looking at him with wild eyes. He took a step back and held up his hands in surrender. "Hanna , it's just me," he said softly. "I'm not going to hurt you."_

 _The knife fell from her hand and she curled herself into a ball on the floor and started to cry, the lights came on as Caleb put the knife on the table and knelt down next to her, he looked up and saw Spencer and Emily looking worriedly at him and he shook his head letting them know he had this, he had her._

" _Hanna," he whispered reaching out to touch her carefully, hoping he didn't spook her again and this time she let him as she uncurled herself and pressed herself to him and sobbed. Caleb's heart broke as he caught sight of the bruises on her exposed skin, and he vowed to kill the person that did this to her._

" _I'm not ok."_

* * *

He tried to wake her by holding her once more after that first night and got a similar reaction, which scared him enough to only touch her when she was awake and she reached for him.

Her breathing got less erratic as he spoke until she began calling out for him but he knew he couldn't reach out to her just yet. Instead he just kept talking to her, telling her that she was safe and waiting patiently for this nightmare to pass, letting his voice be her way out.

She told him once that when she had a bad nightmare he was the only one who could bring her out of it, she knew how much it hurt him that it took him so long to bring her out of her sleep induced panic but she was working on it, they both were.

* * *

" _What's going on?" Caleb asked walking into Spencer's house with Toby for another day of searching for Uber A, only to find the girls surrounding very upset Hanna._

" _There's some files on Mary Drake and Charlotte stored in the barn house," Spencer said loudly motioning for everyone to move out of the sitting room. "We'll let you talk," she said more quietly just to him._

" _Hey," Caleb said dropping down to sit next to Hanna who glanced at him and then back down at her hands, it had been less than a week since she returned to them and she decided that she needed to get back to her usual routine which meant flying up to New York and forgetting that she ever came back to Rosewood. "I thought you were in New York."_

" _I had to change my plans," she said putting her coffee mug on the table and turning to face him on the couch. "I'm sorry I hurt you."_

" _It's fine," he said reaching up to touch his cheek where her engagement ring cut him when he tried to touch her during her nightmare. "It's pretty much healed how."_

" _I didn't mean that," she said with a small smile. "But I'm sorry for that too."_

" _What happened in New York?" he asked clearing his throat, he didn't want her to know how much it hurt when she left Rosewood, even though she was engaged to someone else and it was bound to happen he still had hope that she would stay in Rosewood ... that she would stay with him._

" _Jordan left me," she said touching her left hand where her ring sat before and for the first time he looked down to find her left hand bare. "I don't have a job, there's really not much left for me in New York at the moment."_

" _Oh," he said dumbly, he was a little pissed at Jordan for abandoning her when she was so vulnerable. "We're all here for you Han," he said after a moment knowing that he and their friends would band together to protect her better than they did before."You look like you need to sleep."_

" _I can't," she said pressing her eyelids together and shaking her head._

" _I'll be right here," he said softly. "I'll wake you up before the nightmares take over," he said, not knowing if even he could keep that promise._

" _You're probably the only one," she said turning to look at him with troubled blue eyes. "You're the only one who can bring me out of a bad nightmare, you did it after the first dollhouse and you did it the other day."_

" _I will as long as you let me," he promised knowing that he could keep that promise, he would bring her out of any nightmare because he hated the terror that she felt when she was trapped in her dreams. "Hanna," Caleb started but was cut off when she started to talk again._

" _I can't sleep," she said looking at him with tear-filled eyes, she was still straining to keep up her strong front and not let anyone see how emotional she was. "When I do ... I'm trapped and sometimes one of the girls are with me and sometimes I scream for you."_

" _Hanna," Caleb started again, shaking his head and cupping her cheeks in his hands, he didn't know if he could bear it if she said that she called for him and he didn't come to save her, because that was exactly what happened when A.D took her and he couldn't hear her say it._

" _That's why Jordan broke up with me," she said and Caleb dropped his hands to join hers on her lap as he looked quizzically at her. "I keep calling for you and he can't share me with another man ... I meant it when I said that I never stopped loving you Caleb."_

 _Just like that they were back at lost woods resort, Caleb leaning in hesitantly, giving her time to back out before connecting their lips. He smiled into the kiss because this is what home felt like to him, he didn't know what they were but he was willing to be anything she wanted to be until she was in a position to fully commit to him._

 _The door opened, making Hanna and Caleb break apart and Ezra popped his head into the lounge, "Hey where is everyone else?"_

" _Barn," Caleb told him and Ezra nodded slowly as he took in the scene he just walked in on before closing the door again. Hanna burst out laughing and dropped her head to Caleb's chest, Caleb just shook his head and wrapped his arms around her, as irritated as he was with Ezra for interrupting them, hearing Hanna laugh like that for the first time in years made it worth it._

* * *

After what seemed like forever, Hanna's eyes snapped open and she looked up panicked to find Caleb right by her side, smiling worriedly at her. "Hey," he whispered.

Hanna threw herself into his arms and he rocked her gently, pressing his face into her hair and hushing her. They sat on the bed for a long time, as her breathing returned to normal and his panic faded. "My hair is wet," she mumbled when she ran her hands through her hair and sat up on the bed across from him.

"I think you should make an appointment with Dr. Sullivan in the morning," Caleb told her as she frowned at how damp everything was because of how much she had been sweating during her nightmare. "It's been a while since it's been this bad."

"I know," she said getting up and starting the methodical task of changing the sheets.

"Hanna," Caleb said getting up after her to help, and to make sure she was hearing him when he was telling her to get help. All the girls have kept in contact with the doctor, seeing her when they needed to, it was only Hanna that had scheduled appointments with the therapist.

"I will call her in the morning," Hanna said biting the inside of her cheek as she smoothed the cover over their bed.

"What was it about this time?" he asked, tilting his head and looking at her in that endearing way that made her want to tell him everything.

"You," she sighed, sitting down on the bed and bringing her knees to her chest, trying to ignore the horrified look Caleb always got on his face when one of her nightmares revolved around him. "He had you ... and he was hurting you and I couldn't stop it."

Her voice cracked as the memories of her nightmare gripped her and Caleb moved quickly to gather her in his arms again and press little kisses to her head to assure her that he was perfectly fine and that it was all just in her head.

"I'm a mess," Hanna said wiping her eyes.

"You are perfect," Caleb said pushing her hair back and tilting her head up to look at him. "You are the bravest person I know and you're doing so well, it's actually amazing how much progress you've made in such a short amount of time."

"It's all because of you," she said shaking her head and thinking about how lost she would be if he wasn't there for both of her dollhouse experiences, she would have withdrawn into herself, there was so much that Caleb did that no-one else could have done.

"I would do anything for you Hanna," Caleb told her, kissing her sweetly. "I love you."

"I love you too," she whispered, trying to cover up her yawn that betrayed how tired she actually was, he pulled down the covers and tugged her under the blankets with him.

"Go back to sleep, I won't let anything happen to you and nothing is going to happen to me," he said switching the bedside light off and running his fingers through her hair. She hated going to sleep after having a nightmare but just knowing that Caleb was there, watching over her as she slept, made her feel safe, especially when he reassured her that Uber A and A and whoever they were working with was gone and they were safe and nothing was going to hurt them again. "We'll talk more after you get some sleep."

Hanna flailed her arm around until she caught a hold of his free hand and intertwined their fingers on his chest. "Everyone is coming over tomorrow, you should sleep too," Hanna mumbled sleepily, her eyes already shut, reminding him that their friends were not easy to handle when tired.

"I'll worry about that tomorrow, I just want to watch you for a little bit longer," Caleb said bringing her left hand up to his mouth and kissed her ring, the one that matched his to show the world that she was his. Nothing would hurt her again, he would make sure of it.

* * *

 **A/N : Hi Haleb fandom, I hope you enjoyed this haleb moment, I adore this ship and I've been wanting to write for them for such a long time but I never had the courage to post any of my drabbles**

 **Please please review and let me know what you think and if you guys are interested you can follow my fan account for Hanna and Caleb on instagram 1105haleb**

 **I hope to talk to you guys soon with more stories**

 **Until Next Time (^^,)**


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